Alexandria Gazette

For the ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1841.

[For The Alexandria Gazette.]
MEMORY.

The restless year rolls on its course,
In grade and aspect ever changing;
Now bland and bright, now wild and hoarse;
Now genial, now adversely ranging.

The Spring's mild influence now prevails;
And gives to nature life and beauty,
With harmony pervades the dales,
And wakens industry to duty.

Next Summer spreads her radiant wings,
The waving fields with lustre gilding;
Fresh fragrance o'er the senses flings,
And rests where hearts high hopes are building.

Now generous Autumn brings her stores,
And scatters blessings o'er each county;
Unmetered comforts round she pours.
And e'en the poorest feel her bounty.

And now rude Winter sounds his blast;
To fearful conquest fiercely marches,
With ruin strews the plain aghast,
And with dun clouds the welkin arches.

So life presents a chequered scene—
A compound range of varied phases—
When memory draws aside the screen,
And fixed in retrospection, gazes.

We pore entranced upon the view,
Not always gay, but sometimes weeping;
For joys there seen may be but few.
And sorrow's measure seem o'erheaping.

Yet, still we gaze with steadfast eye—
Perhaps with something half like pleasure—
Though wintry deserts we descry,
And wasted see our cherished treasure.

As thus we scan life's by-gone hours,
How brightly rise youth's tints before us!
When pleasure decked our path with flowers,
And hopes unclouded blue was o'er us!

We seem our own light laugh to hear—
Of richest merriment the sally;
Again to view those precincts near,
Where youth's votaries would rally:

The hour when love surprised our hearts—
A deep sincere and warm affection,
Such as when into fondness starts
Our being's purest predilection—

Brings sweet enchantment to our mood,
Our senses soothes in dreamy rapture,
Makes life's bright title-page renewed,
And bliss seem bound in endless rapture,

Makes earth look what it first appeared—
A paradise of love and blessing:
Where heart to heart is more endeared
As time is on its way progressing.

Until—how strange that it should be!
Alas! that what we prize most fully
Should shine with such uncertainty.
That but a breath its gloss may sully!

Until some thought skims o'er the mind.
As light perchance as moonlight's mildness,
In which an antidote we find
To all of former rapture's wildness:

Which deepens into reverie
On things, that, like the lightning's flashing,
Our hearts have pierced with misery.
The cup of gladness from us dashing

Perhaps, the solemn bed of death.
Renewed in gloom, before us rises;
Where waned a loved one's dying breath.
Fulfilling all our worst surmises.

The dreadful drama yet again
In full array is represented,
Through each long scene of prostrate pain,
Not e'en by kindest care prevented.

The failing clasp of speechless lore,
The last cold kiss, the look of parting,
As speeds the soul away to rove,
To sad reality seeming starting.

And though it draws again our tears,
Recalls our heartfelt desolation;
Yet, still a charm our sorrow bears,
A holy mystic elevation,

That prompts to something yet unknown.
A vague, but not repugnant boding,
Which, though our life's stay be o'erthrown,
Can mitigate despair's corroding.

The wildness of our joyful dream.
Faded, may with the memory's change have vanished,
But peace still sheds its softened beam,
And wins the smile so lately banished.

For nature whispers to the ear,
A tale of promise almost certain,
A word of comfort for us here,
Though round us doubt has drawn its curtain.

It says, or else it seems to say—
Persuades us, if it be delusion—
That soon will come a brighter day
Of well earned bliss, without conclusion.

We catch the glimmer of a dawn,
And think but of the moon's effulgence—
So strong the sense we cease to mourn,
And fancy soars with full indulgence.

And if Religion add her voice,
Her clear, calm, weighty confirmation,
We hold a charter to rejoice;—
Our hope rests on a sure foundation.

For God himself then fills our hearts—
His love appoints the time of greeting—
His spirit confidence imparts—
He leads to Heaven, the place of meeting.

A. F. L.